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Salmon Timbales

A baked salmon dish with butter, milk, breadcrumbs, eggs, lemon, mace, pepper, and white sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Salmon Timbales

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the mixture

  1. Break up the salmon into small pieces and place in a bowl.

  2. Work the salmon to a cream with a wooden spoon, gradually adding the warmed butter and milk.

  3. Separate the egg yolks from the whites; stir in the yolks.

  4. Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks and fold them into the mixture.

  5. Season with salt, red pepper, mace, and lemon juice.

Bake and serve

  1. Fill small buttered molds with the mixture.

  2. Place the molds in a pan of hot water and poach in the oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 30 minutes.

  3. Turn out the timbales and cover with white sauce.

  4. Garnish with parsley and serve hot.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Yolks bind the mixture and the whipped whites lighten it, giving the timbales a set but airy texture.
Salmon
Forms the body of the timbales and provides the main flavor and structure.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and help hold the mixture together so it sets firmly when cooked.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, softening the mixture and carrying flavor.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness, loosening the salmon mixture for a tender set.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten egg whites. Overmixing deflates the stiff egg whites, losing the air that lightens the timbales. Fold gently so the mixture stays airy and rises evenly when set by heat.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (salmon, butter, milk, bread, egg, lemon, pepper):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Dillfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, butter, milk, bread, egg, lemon, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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